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The Ramayana: Exemplary of Personal and Societal Transformation in the Heros Journey Joseph Campbells The Heros Journey is a distillation of the essence of personal, psychological and spiritual transformation a hero goes through during his or her quest. This process is a road map for growth through trial by fire that is present as something at play throughout many classic cultural myths. While it can be found easily within stories such as The Iliad or The Epic of Gilgamesh, the Heros Journey is a universal theme that can be found inside tales lesser known to us in the West such as the Ramayana epic. The Ramayana, a portion of the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred text from India depicts the adventures of prince Rama and his friends through his long journey from inexperienced youth to righteous, aware, mature and benevolent king. The story is not only a tale of Ramas transformations but that of his whole society. The various aspects and stages of the Heros Journey are sometimes fulfilled by Rama himself and occasionally by others. The portion of the story where Rama and his friends encounter the unconscious as a retreat from their world begins with his call to action, in the plea of his people for someone to resist and defeat the titans Marachu and Subahu. His father Dasaratha vows to do this, yet because of the advice of a priest and sage figure Vasishtha, Rama is called to complete this task, as it is considered his dharma to do so, despite protests from his father as him being too young. While Rama accepts this fate himself, his fathers protests represent a kind of refusal of the call to action. Rama defeats the titans, and as his reward, he receives a cadre of heavenly weapons for himself and his brothers from their father, which are representative of his worthiness to go forward in his quest and of supernatural intervention or aid from a helper figure, this case in the form of his own father. He soon encounters both one of his many trials and a goddess in the contest to win Janakas daughter Sita in marriage. He is the only suitor who is able to string Shivas bow; since he is a divine avatar of Vishnu, it is his fate as a heroic figure to do so and to encounter the divine feminine counterpart to his soul or anima in his wife Sita. Because of a promise to Ramas brothers mother

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however, his father is tricked and forced to banish him and he must endure exile for 14 years while his brother Bharata reigns in his stead. He willingly accepts this, a heroic and valiant act, and while his brother Lakshmanas protests represent another refusal to a call to action, both he and Sita accompany him in his journey away from Ayodhya, as it is their fulfilment of their personal dharma. Ramas exile represents a crossing of the threshold into unknown territory and a difficult future ahead of him. Rama and his friends encounter many more trials in the Ramayana, and there are several helper figures along the way, such as Jatayu the eagle who tries to stop Ravana when he kidnaps Sita and dies as a result, a spirit that Rama and Lakshmana free from a demon body form who helps guide them further in their journey, Jatayus brother who shows them all the way to Lanka, and the monkey figures King Sugreeva and Hanuman who becomes a devotee of Rama and Sugreevas entire army who later help defeat the demon King Ravana. All of these characters represent a mostly willing societal dutifulness to the divine and to righteous causes and dharma, even if it means their death in fulfilling it. Before the rakshasa or demon King Ravana attempts to kidnap Sita from Rama, Rama is tempted by Ravanas shape-shifting sister so that he will falter in his heroic trajectory and lose his connection to his feminine half and to the divine. Also, while Rama and several of his allies encounter trials in battle against evil forces, his final encounter with the great warrior giant Kubakana, who lost his own sons in battle and with Ravana represent an atonement with his fathers earlier actions as a subtle form of revenge against his initial exile and fall from grace. These and other encounters also represent his triumph over his father as conquership of manhood, as he finally achieves his role as heir to the throne in the return of and continuation of divine rulership. Through his triumps in trials and battle, his rescue of Sita and others, his appeal and prayer to the sea god and his multiple displays of humility and righteousness over anger, Rama achieves apotheosis. The magic flight back homeward is carried out by Rama and Sita in their vimana, however the return of the elixir is done earlier by his devotee Hanuman when he ventures into the Himalayas to recover healing herbs to save Lakshmana and others from their battle wounds. He also encounters a sea

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monster while crossing the ocean towards Lanka and in doing so is eaten by the beast yet cuts his way out, fulfilling that part aspect of the Heros Journey. Interestingly, instead of only focusing on one man as the hero, the Ramayana epic contains many heroes, who are either close to Rama as brothers, friends or devotees such as Lakshmana, Sugreeva and Hanuman or Sugreevas entire army who are also devoted to Ramas cause of rescuing Sita and the other hostages under the tyrant Ravana. When Rama is not actively the hero, others in the story act as heroes, living vicariously through his glory and attached to his righteous cause as the main character. This is telling of Hindu society, in that it greatly values execution of dharma in ones life as duty to ones own society and self, especially to those leaders who are viewed as exemplary of righteousness and proper action, as is certainly the case with Rama. There are elements of the Hindu caste system hinted at in the story, with all righteous causes and dutiful actions coming back to their source of intent lying in serving the royal prince and eventual ruler Rama, a living incarnation of Vishnu, the highest god and the ultimate hero.